Strength
by Princess Tyler Briefs
Summary: Tragedy strikes Konoha in an unexpected way, and tests the courage of some of it's inhabitants. [Part 2 of 2, KakaIru].
1. Part 1

**A/N:** Okay, this is another two part one-shot (does that even make sense?). Again, this functions within the 'Pieces' universe. This one, however, doesn't really have spoilers. It's just incredibly important for the sequel! Some angst and stuff here, mostly, but it's very important angst so…what can I do?

This particular story is dedicated to **_ilovekakairu_** because I totally took the idea for how Iruka gets injured from one of their stories. I'd been trying for days to come up with something suitable for him that hadn't been overly used. It was perfect, so I've stolen it. With credit, of course!

Also, due to FF . Net's screwy format, you guys don't get a warning before it switches from Kakashi's side of the story to Iruka's. Just be aware that it does, and if it's to confusing let me know.

**Disclaimer:** I don't actually wish I owned them. That would be far too much pressure. This is much nicer, really.

**Warnings:** KakaIru (can I write anything else? Hm...) . Finally, this story mentions the use of terrorist like tactics by a ninja. It doesn't applaud their use at all, but if you're particularly sensitive to it, just avoid it.

**Summary:** Tragedy strikes Konoha in the most unexpected ways, and the courage of some of its inhabitants is tested in the hardest way.

**_Strength_**  
_Chapter 1/2_

Kakashi pondered, as he dodged the stream of weapons sent his way, why he'd agreed to help Guy train his team. He also wondered why he'd gotten stuck with the rejects he had when Guy's team was so good. Something was just wrong with the world. Stupid karma.

He had to admit that this girl was good. She had amazing aim, and since most of her stuff came from scrolls it would be impossible for a sharingan user to copy her. Kakashi wondered if Guy understood all the implications this held for the future, and that was why he was having him work with her specifically. He thought Guy probably did.

"Hit him, Tenten," mini-Guy yelled, "or you should do three-hundred kunai drills!"

"Now, Lee-kun, it is not Tenten's fault if she is not good enough to beat someone as renown as my esteemed rival. After all, he is in the very spring time of his youth, and only the most skilled of ninja has ever done so."

Guy was obviously manipulating the little Kunoichi, and she was walking right in to it. That angrily thrown shuriken was a little too close for comfort.

Why had he agreed to do this again?

Oh, yes, because Iruka had looked so happy when Kakashi had told him Guy had asked. Because Iruka had hugged him tight, kissed his jaw, and told him he was glad Kakashi had a friend and that he was willing to help him out. He told him it was sweet of him to be willing to help Guy when he wasn't strong enough to do it himself, and that he was proud of him.

In retrospect, Kakashi felt slightly used. Iruka had deliberately boosted his ego to get him to do this instead of hanging around his beloved's classroom all day.

Well, that was just rude.

Kakashi barely dodged another range of weapons, suddenly three hairs less than he'd had when the exercise started. Damn it, he was the genius! Why did he get the messed up kids with the most possible emotional baggage? He could have done so much with these three without screwing them up for life!

He had managed to dodge one more kunai, this one aimed at his crotch, which he thought a bit unfair, when a violent explosion rocked the air around them. Tenten yelped, knocked over by the whoosh of hot air that suddenly descended upon them.

"What was that?" Mini-Guy asked, startled, from where he'd fallen on to his hands and knees. Kakashi realized, without really registering it, that he and Guy were the only two that had managed to remain standing.

"Neji," Guy commanded. That was all that was needed for the Hyuuga to activate his eyes, cutting through trees to where smoke was now rising from the center of town while the rest of them prepared to race off and confront an attack.

"Something has happened at the Academy," Neji said tersely. "It's on fire."

Kakashi thought, at that moment, that everything inside him was frozen on one thought. Iruka…

He'd been listening to Konohamaru try and talk his way out of trouble for his latest escape attempt- closing his eyes and pressing on them to try and fight off the impending headache- when Iruka sensed it. He'd always been good at realizing an attack moments before it happened. He had a sixth sense about such things, and it had never failed him yet.

So, when that sense went off in the middle of class, he didn't hesitate to listen to it.

"Get under your desks, now!" Iruka yelled, interrupting Konohamaru mid-sentence. Like the well trained almost ninja the were, the children listened to their superior when he had that serious tone without hesitation. Iruka grabbed Konohamaru and his friend, Udon, forcing them to the floor and shielding them with his body just as the door blew off and the room was engulfed with heat and smoke. Iruka could feel his skin burning, and bit his lip so he wouldn't cry out.

The kids screamed, but they did not move as the glass of the windows shattered with a crash and an earsplitting roar of fiery air shook everything around them.

Things in the room had caught on fire and smoke was filling in the door and out the too high now broken windows. Iruka released his hold on the two frightened boys beneath him and blinked through the rippling heat.

The academy had been attacked. Okay, he could deal with that. His priority was to get the children to safety.

There were almost sixty kids in his classroom that day, as he'd agreed to take another teacher's class for the morning while she took her young son for a doctor's appointment. He could not possibly teleport them all out at once, and it would take far too long to do it in small groups as well as use too much chakra.

The windows were too high for the kids to climb through, but maybe he could throw them…

Iruka ran up the wall to check, as the students began to fearfully climb out from under their desks. Some of them were crying, a bunch were coughing and screaming, but Iruka did his best to ignore them as he peered down at the courtyard to find it was on fire. Not an option.

He couldn't sit and wait for help, either. The rescue teams that would be sent would focus on those closest to the explosion and those that would be easiest to reach. Those with the smallest children. With a class of nine and ten year old students and in the middle-highest point of the building, Iruka was on his own.

Iruka dropped down, the glass cracking under his feet. He grabbed Konohamaru's hand tightly in his own. At least with an older class, they weren't panicking. They were scared, crying, but they trusted he would be able to get them out. He was determined not to let them down.

"Form two lines," Iruka barked, still clutching Konohamaru's hand. "Grab the hand of the person on either side of you. Keep your heads down, keep up, and don't let go. Do you understand? Do NOT let go!"

There was scuffling and several choked sobs mixed with coughing as they obeyed him without question. He would have to praise them later.

Iruka focused his chakra on his eyes, to try and make it so he could see through the smoke. The kids would be able to duck below it, but unless Iruka was on his hands and knees it wouldn't work, and that would be far to slow.

He took the hand offered to him by Hanabi Hyuuga. He thought for a moment about asking her to use her Byakkugan, but she seemed far to frightened. He didn't want to put any more pressure on her.

"Stay close to the person in front of you. I want you to keep saying your names. Konohamaru first, down his line, then up the other, okay?"

There were some think sounding affirimtive answers before Iruka started out the door. His throat burned from the smoke and heat, and several of the kids started coughing as they entered the smoke filled hallway. They didn't see anyone else, and Iruka could only hope the other classes on his floor had been outside.

"Sarutobi Konohamaru," said a voice behind him as Iruka started in the direction he knew the stairs were. One little voice followed another, giving them something to focus on, and allowing Iruka to keep track of them all as he hurried through the flames.

Kakashi was the first to reach the academy out of the group he'd been with, but no one seemed surprised. Tsunade and any ninjas or civilians that had been close by were already waiting there in a large crowd. The Hokage seemed to be trying to get them organized in some way to form rescue teams.

She snagged Kakashi the moment he arrived, all but shoving him in to a team with Asuma and a chuunin he didn't know.

"I want you to search the lower levels for any of the classes of small children. Start at the back, the explosion came from that side."

"But," Kakashi heard himself protesting. It didn't quite register as him. He felt numb inside.

"Only then can you search the upper levels. I'll have ninja go help those in the worst hit areas, but we're not prepared for this. Get going!"

Kakashi could only nod and follow Asuma as they ran inside. He couldn't disobey a direct order like that, no matter what he felt for Iruka. He allowed himself to glance up the stairs as they passed, but he couldn't see anyone but screaming and crying children being shepherded by teachers who looked just as terrified.

"My nephew is in Iruka's class," Asuma told him as they tried to duck low enough to avoid the worst of the smoke and rising heat- Kakashi was suddenly glad he had the foresight to always wear a mask. "When you go to find him, I'm coming with you."

Kakashi just nodded, and the trio made their way to the back of the building. Kakashi could see flames leaping up the of the building. Several classrooms had to have been taken out by the force of the blast.

They opened the first one they could, with Asuma kicking down the door. The teacher inside looked panicked, as she used her body to shield her very small class. She looked badly burned.

The wailing children couldn't have been more than four or five years old, and there were only about seven of them. Asuma scooped up three, a fourth grabbing his leg, while Kakashi grabbed three more, and the chuunin gently picked up the teacher. They couldn't use their hands to form hand seals, so they had to run again.

Kakashi couldn't help but growl as they raced outside, lungs almost burning at the sudden oxygen. This was taking too long.

They had reached the second level, only to find the most direct path to the stairs blocked by a wall of flames. Iruka could see shadows running around on the other side, and was glad to see others had survived, even if he couldn't reach them.

The only other way down involved going up to the fourth and highest level of the academy, where the smoke most certainly would be thickest, and down a back set of stairs that was rarely used. It minimized the chance of them being found, but it was better than just sitting there.

Turning around, Iruka lead the coughing and choking children back up. They seemed even more frightened now, some of them forgetting to say their names and instead just cry for their parents.

He couldn't really blame them.

The smoke and heat on the third level were more intense then they had been before. Iruka started choking as he tried to get some air in his lungs. They would have to go faster, or he would go down and the kids would be left alone. That would not happen. Not while he could still move.

Flames licked at their heels as they got close to the back wall. There wasn't a child that wasn't coughing now, but they diligently held on to the hands they'd been assigned to. Iruka knew, even as he led them up those stairs, that they were trapped. They could not go back down the way they had come up, and the intense heat on all sides warned him that going down the back stairs was not going to be possible either.

They were trapped, and there wasn't anything Iruka could do about it.

'Kakashi, where are you? I need you!'

They had cleared the bottom level without much incident. Many of the teachers had managed to get their students out on their own from there. Tsunade informed them, as Kakashi put down his fourth group of students, that they had confirmed what had happened.

One of their own- one of the teachers in fact- had turned traitor, going to Orochimaru's side. He'd wanted to give his new master an advantage by wiping out the next generation of ninja. He also knew that a blow where the children and teachers were killed would further demoralize the village. He'd set explosive tags up around his classroom, and detonated them. Him, and the kids in his class had all been killed. So far, they were the only know casualties but that could change quickly.

Kakashi felt sick. He didn't like kids, but he could not imagine trying to kill them. He didn't understand it, and was not sure he even wanted to try.

Instead, he looked around the crowd for a sign, any sign, of Iruka or one of his students. There was nothing, and Kakashi turned to Tsunade fiercely.

"Where's Iruka? He should be here by now!"

Tsunade shook her head, "the fire's spread too quickly. The upper levels are almost completely blocked off. The bottom two levels are clear, but I won't take unnecessary risks with my ninja."

"This is necessary."

"Just don't do anything stupid."

Kakashi nodded, deciding he could give her that. He took off back towards the school, and knew Asuma and Guy weren't far behind him.

'Iruka, don't you dare die on me. I'm coming.'

Iruka had lead his class to the other set of stairs, and left them standing at the top for a moment while he inspected them. The fire had not gotten through yet, but it wasn't stable. The whole passage was ready to fall in on itself. They'd have to go quickly if they stood any chance of making it down.

He ran back to his class, coughing at he entered the smoke filled hallway again.

"Sensei," one of the little girls wailed when he reappeared. "Sensei, are we going to die?"

"No," he croaked. His voice was scratchy at best. "We're going to get out of her, Emi, I promise."

"Iruka-sensei always keeps his promises," Konohamaru said, grabbing on to Iruka's hand again. It never ceased to amaze Iruka how calm the young boy could be in a crisis. When things got really serious, he could count on Konohamaru to step up and lead the others if he had to.

Hanabi resumed her spot on his other side and Iruka started to lead them as quickly down the stairs as he could. They hadn't gotten very far, only about halfway to the third level, when the stair under his feet gave an ominous crackle. Iruka pulled back, jerking Konohamaru and Hanabi with him, just in time for that stair and the three below it to fall down in to the flames.

'Kami-sama, now what?' Iruka struggled to remain calm; looking at the inferno below him that had been the academy. He had to get them out. He couldn't lose his head. He had to focus. He had to…

"'Ruka!"

Iruka snapped open eyes he didn't know he had closed. Standing on the other side of the gaping hole was Kakashi, Asuma and Guy just behind him.

"Iruka, are you alright!"

"We're fine, but we're stuck! The other way is completely blocked."

Kakashi frowned down at the hole in front of him, taking a step back when the edge began to fall away as ash. "Can you jump it?"

"Not several times, but I can…Kakashi could you…?"

Kakashi looked up at him, knowing without his lover having to say it what he wanted him to do. A part of the Jounin was screaming in fury that he couldn't do anything to get Iruka over to his side immediately, but most of him simply knew that the children were priority.

"This way is clear for most of the way down."

Iruka nodded, releasing Konohamaru's hand and instead grabbing him by the back of the shirt. Using the smallest amount of chakra he could, Iruka lifted the boy and threw him at Kakashi. Konohamaru let out a cry of fright before Kakashi caught him and handed him immediately over to Guy.

"Set them down behind us and have them start forming a line. Asuma, you and Konohamaru can lead the way down!"

Asuma nodded, holding on to his nephew's hand almost as tightly as the boy had his.

Iruka snagged Hanabi next, tossing her to Kakashi as quickly as he could. The stairs were slowly crumbling around them, the hellish heat making them sweat and gasp for air. The kids were starting to dehydrate, some of them nearly falling over as the hacked and coughed.

Kakashi caught child after child, realizing after a while that this was more than Iruka's class. Where had he picked up all these kids? Finally, he'd set the last one down and they'd grabbed the hand of the pale child before them. Kakashi leaned out, stretching his hand out. "Iruka, come on!"

"That's not all of them!" Iruka was looking around frantically. "That isn't all of them, we've lost some one!"

"Iruka, come on, the stairs won't hold!"

Iruka ignored him, or else couldn't hear him over the crackling of the fire below. He turned and dashed back up the stairs. Kakashi yelled in frustration and was just about to try and jump across himself when the scarred man reappeared, carrying an unconscious little girl in his arms.

The stair Iruka was standing on began to pop and snap. Iruka gasped as his foot broke through. He reacted on instinct, refusing to take time they simply did not have to try and pull his foot out.

"Kakashi! Catch her!"

The Copy-nin did as instructed, catching the limp girl on almost complete instinct as he watched the other side of the stairs collapse, taking his world with it. Iruka didn't cry out, but he did look at Kakashi a desperate look, as if trying to make him understand, before he disappeared in a swirl of red, of embers and ash.

Kakashi didn't scream. Instead he threw the girl back towards Guy and tried desperately to reach where the stairs had been. Had it been anyone but Guy behind him, he would have succeeded in jumping after his lover.

Instead, he found himself caught by a strong arm around his waist and all but tossed down the stairs. He hit, bounced once, and rolled down a few.

"Kakashi, we must get out of here!"

"But Iruka!"

"You can not help him now!" Guy grabbed him by the back of the vest, pulling him away from the first person Kakashi had let himself love in a long time. Pulling him away from everything that mattered.

Kakashi didn't struggle. He couldn't. It didn't matter. Everything that had mattered had fallen away, just out of his reach, into the raging flames below.


	2. Part 2

**A/N:** Goodness, I hate leaving you guys like that. This chapter is shorter and far less jumpy- but the truly important one for 'The Heart Grows' so pay attention, okay?

The idea for the seal is originally from "Side Effects". Excellent story, and I don't even like Mpreg. I have sort of twisted and embellished the idea, but it wasn't mine originally either.

Have I ever told you guys I'm thoroughly uncreative? I don't come up with my own ideas- I make story smoothies!

_**Strength  
**Chapter 2/2_

The first thing Iruka realized was that he was intensely cold. He couldn't feel his body, and his head was swimming from the frigidness he felt. Which was odd, because the last thing he could remember was horribly intense heat that was suffocating him.

Iruka opened his eyes- or maybe he just became aware that they were open- and found himself looking down at himself lying in a hospital bed.

Oh, shit!

This wasn't good. This couldn't possibly be good. Iruka scrutinized his body below him, watching as the machines buzzed and his chest rose and fell from the oxygen they gave him. Okay, so he wasn't dead. He just…wasn't there.

That was still bad.

"Let me see him! Guy, you son of a bitch, let me go!"

Kakashi.

Iruka tried to turn his head towards the voice. He couldn't, but he found he didn't have to. He could see the door without moving. Creepy.

"You can't see him until you calm down, Hatake, so stop right there!"

And that was Tsunade. He must have been in worse trouble than he thought.

A moment or two of silence, during which Kakashi probably forced himself to calm down.

"Tell me he's okay." Kakashi sounded like he was pleading with her. Like he could not handle it if she said anything else.

If he could have, Iruka would have sucked in a breath of sheer shock. Could he really make THE copy-ninja sound like that? Kakashi said he loved him, and he'd seen how upset Kakashi could get when he was in danger before. But this…this was too much. He was sure he could have felt sick if he could have felt anything but the dizzying cold.

"Kakashi, I can't do that. You know he's not okay. He was badly burned, bones broken, smoke inhalation, head trauma, and chakra system messed up from his instant reaction to try and protect himself before he hit the ground. He had a piece of wood go completely through his shoulder! He is not okay."

That should have hurt, Iruka realized. He should at least feel some of that. He took back what he'd said about Kakashi being crazy when the Jounin had told him that pain was good because it let you know you were still alive the last time his lover had returned messed up from a mission.

He had been right, and Kami-sama why could he feel nothing but the cold?

"He's alive. Tell me that much."

"Technically."

"Technically?"

"His body is alive because we're keeping it that way. The trauma he went through…he doesn't have the strength to stay alive on his own. Maybe he will come back on his own. Maybe he won't. I just can't tell you right now. I've done everything I can. The rest is up to him."

Limbo then? Nice.

"Hokage-sama…Tsunade…let me see him. Please."

Silence for a long time, and then the door slowly opened. He caught a brief glimpse of Tsunade holding the door open and Guy standing just behind before Kakashi strode in to the room. The moment Tsunade shut the door, Kakashi yanked down his mask so fast he scratched himself. He didn't seem to care.

"'Ru? Ru, it's me."

Kakashi was covered in soot and ash, the skin that had been covered by his mask looking oddly pale under the grime. His hands were shaking as he crossed over to the bed, gently laying a hand on Iruka's forehead.

Iruka found himself focusing on the fact that Tsunade had healed the burns in visible areas so they wouldn't scar. That was kind of her. He already had that one scar to attract enough attention.

He couldn't bring himself to focus on Kakashi, though it was impossible for him to look away. He didn't even have eyelids to close.

He just couldn't bring himself to pay much attention to the tears that were slowly leaving streaks through the black on Kakashi's face. Refused to notice on a conscious level how his normally strong and stoic lover was trembling so badly.

Refused to allow himself to see just how much power he had over the Jounin. How deeply Kakashi loved him.

It had really be kind of Tsunade to make sure that his students wouldn't see the scars.

"'Ruka-ru, it's me. It's Kakashi."

Iruka wanted to laugh at him and ask him who else would be sitting by his bedside like that? He didn't have anyone else to care about him like this, so of course it was Kakashi.

He wanted to sit up and hug his beloved, to wipe away his tears while he pretended not to notice them.

All he could do was sit there, frozen all over, unable to feel anything and unable to look away.

"'Ru, please open your eyes for me. Just a little bit. I need to know you're going to be okay."

'I want to, Kakashi. I want to so badly, but I've forgotten how…'

"Please, don't do this to me again. Don't make me sit here and watch you die all over again. Please…"

Kakashi's voice broke, and Iruka wished he could feel it as the Jounin laid his head carefully next to Iruka's on the pillow- gently wiping stray strands of burnt hair away from his closed eyes.

Kami-sama, this wasn't fair! Kakashi had suffered enough in his life. He didn't deserve to suffer like this. Iruka didn't deserve to be loved like this- although he supposed nobody really did.

"Why couldn't you have just left her?" Kakashi asked, and then laughed harshly. "I'm being silly. I couldn't have left her either. I would expect no less of you. You love everyone too much, my Ruka.

Tsunade says you don't have strength enough to come back on your own, 'Ru. I don't know whether or not I believe that. I can't imagine you not being strong enough…"

Iruka wished he could have smiled. Had anyone told him in the beginning of all of this- when Tsunade had assigned Kakashi as his instructor- that the Copy-ninja would ever be saying something like that about him, Iruka would have laughed in their face. He wasn't so sure he wouldn't still. It was almost surreal. Kakashi always such a hard time telling him these things…

"I want to help you. Help you have strength when your own isn't enough. Always. I wish you were here to tell me whether this is okay or not but…I'm not going to lose you no matter what you say."

'Well, that's good, because I don't want to leave.' Iruka thought, noticing vaguely that the cold was intensifying and the sound starting to muffle. Oh God…this was dying. He remembered this. Being so, so cold and Kakashi starting to sound further and further away. 'Kakashi…Kakashi help me! Just like last time…please!'

Kakashi pulled out a kunai, removed his glove, and then deftly slit his palm wide open. Blood spattered the white hospital sheets and tile as Iruka stared at him.

Using his other hand, Kakashi dipped one of his fingers in his slightly cupped hand like it was ink. He began drawing symbols on the exposed stomach of Iruka's body.

"If ever you need me, you can find me. I would willingly walk through the deepest circle of hell to get to you.

If ever you find you aren't strong enough, you can lean on me. I will have all the strength I need, as long as you need me."

'I am yours, Kakashi. Wholly and completely. Always.'

The little symbols were spreading out in two slowly widening spirals with the same center. They were so interwoven that it was nearly impossible to tell which circle was which. It wasn't like any seal Iruka had ever seen, but he supposed Kakashi had to know what he was doing when Yondaime had been his sensei.

"My life is your life, to use as you will. My strength, my love, is all a part of you. We are the same, one heart, one soul. One complete circle that does not end."

To Iruka, Kakashi was starting to sound like he was speaking from under water. He couldn't even be afraid of the cold anymore. The cold was all there was.

Kakashi stopped drawing on Iruka. Instead he spread the blood down his fingers until his whole hand was coated like he'd just dipped it in brilliantly red paint. He placed it in the center of the circle, and closed his eye to try and block out the machines around him steadily getting louder.

He focused his chakra in the center of his palm, forcing it in to the middle of the seal so that it spread outward through the two spirals.

Iruka gasped as his world of cold and rapidly approaching darkness was shattered by warmth. It started just below his chest and spiraled out. He could feel the frayed ends of his chakra being tied together, to something new, with warm gold threads. The ends melted together, the blue threads of his own chakra blending with the golden warmth.

Kakashi. This was the feeling he felt when he would wake up in Kakashi's arms. Warm, safe, and over whelmed by the aura of power Kakashi always radiated- even when he wasn't aware of it. This was Kakashi, this was Iruka, and this was the two of them together and just one person.

The warmth around him grew, forcing the cold away from him, drowning him, but it never became unbearably hot like the fire had. He was safe. Safe, safe, safe…

Iruka closed his eyes- or maybe they'd been closed all along- and realized he could feel. And it hurt more than he would have liked, but it was there and he was there and that's what mattered.

He was tired, and he hurt, but he did not feel weak. Underneath his own exhaustion was something new. An undercurrent of gold, waiting to be used when he needed it, bleeding in and around his chakra- filling in the holes and getting so mixed up he almost couldn't tell the two apart.

'What did he do?' Iruka asked himself, astounded. Knowing the only way he'd get any answers would be to go to the source, Iruka concentrated some of that strength on getting his eyes open.

It took a couple of tried, but he managed it. He could see Kakashi now over the top of an oxygen mask. The other ninja still had his palm flat on Iruka's stomach, forcing chakra in to the seal as if trying to force it to work because he didn't think it had yet. Iruka wanted to call out for him, but couldn't with the mask on. Instead he twitched his hand.

Kakashi gasped softly, releasing the force of his chakra immediately. The golden current receded slightly, but did not disappear. Iruka wondered vaguely now what a Hyuuga would see if they looked at him now.

Kakashi opened his eye, sweat dripping down his face as he shook slightly, and smiled at the puzzled and slightly dazed coffee eyes that stared back at him.

"I knew you wouldn't leave me," Kakashi said weakly.

Iruka didn't seem satisfied with that answer, and frowned at him just slightly. He looked like he wanted to talk, but couldn't and Kakashi didn't dare remove the oxygen mask just yet.

"My sensei taught me that seal. He said it creates a two-way connection between people. It allows you to access my chakra if you need to, and me to access yours. It's a risky seal, as it will destroy half your chakra system if the other dies but…"

Iruka was glaring at him, looking ready to protest, just like Kakashi knew he would, but Kakashi didn't care. They could argue the intelligence of his decision later, when Tsunade would chew his ass for performing a forbidden technique.

Right now, he didn't care. Iruka was here, Iruka was safe. Iruka would survive when no one else in Kakashi loved had.

Laughing slightly, Kakashi put his head down on the pillow next to Iruka's. He was sure his boyfriend would have pulled away if the machines hadn't held him still, but it didn't matter. Nothing else mattered but that Iruka would stay with him forever.

"I love you, Iruka. More than anything. I don't want to see a world without you ever again. I will do everything in my power to keep you with me, so don't think you can escape that easily."

Iruka sighed next to him, closing his eyes, and Kakashi could have sworn he heard the softest of whispers saying, "I love you too, even though you're an idiot. Don't forget it, now or ever."


End file.
